IN FOCUS: New Mexico District 2 Congressional Candidate David Baake

New Mexico District 2 Congressional Candidate David Baake (D) shares why he is running for Congress.

KRWG is speaking with candidates who have announced that they are running for New Mexico's District two Congressional seat. On a recent episode of KRWG-TV's In Focus, David Baake a candidate who has announced he is entering the democratic primary for the district two seat shares why he is running.

"The reason why I wanted to get into politics is because after this last election, all of the progress that we have been making on trying to protect our environment, trying to create clean energy jobs, it's all in jeopardy," says Baake.

"There's a tremendous amount of pride in the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, and there rightfully should be," says Baake.

Baake says there are so many beautiful places with cultural significance within the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National that covers nearly 500,000 acres of land in Southern New Mexico, and that it "absolutely needs to be protected."

In 2014 President Barack Obama created the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument using the Antiquities Act. Baake says he's studied the act and cases that the act has been involved in. He says The Antiquities Act doesn't say anything about repealing or reducing the size of monuments, and he says if that happens it would be illegal.

"I'm confident with the support in this community we won't see it happen," says Baake.

Baake says that the monument could be improved by improving access to parts of the monument, and if elected to Congress, he says he would work on that.

Other issues that Baake thinks are important to improve are the economy.

"The middle class has not recovered from the recession, and we are under siege," says Baake

Baake says that healthcare is "under threat." He says that he thinks healthcare is a right and everyone needs to be able to get it.

"The first think to do would be oppose any cut to Medicaid and to social security, these programs are really vital to New Mexico," says Baake.

Baake says he purchased health insurance through the exchange in New Mexico, and he says it's affordable in the state. However, he says that some states that only have one insurer and have high healthcare costs should have a public option.